- New regulations will target six major tech companies to improve consumer experience and data privacy. These include Alphabet, Amazon, Apple, ByteDance, Meta, and Microsoft.
- Pre-installed apps like weather and email that are difficult to delete will be disallowed, aiming to promote interoperability and reduce “gatekeeping” activities.
- Companies will be prohibited from monetizing user data collected from phone apps for advertising purposes.
- The regulations will encourage competition by allowing alternative payment systems, benefiting startups and consumers.
- The European Commission aims to empower consumers and ensure tech giants adhere to European rules, providing immediate accountability for any issues.
Microsoft has announced that they will stop forcefully opening links built into their products in Microsoft Edge, opening the users’ standard browser instead… for EU computers.
You can bet that Apple will only allow alternative app stores in Europe as well. They’re trying to get out of opening up iMessage because that’s mostly an American thing anyway, and if they can’t, I’m sure they’ll restrict their openness to just the places where they’re forced to by law.
Some laws are affecting you (many websites with automated GDPR tools don’t check if you’re actually from the EU) but I’m afraid the most important changes will only apply over here.